Samsung Reveals the Gear S2 Smart Watch.

[mi7chy]

Maybe it's the angle or lighting but the classic at 0:20 looks really nice. As a matter of fact, all the new watches from Samsung, Moto, Huawei, etc. look nice. Guess it boils down to which one is stand-alone capable with built-in cellular and decent battery life.

 

[The Game 161]

I actually like the way it looks...wish it looked like this Witt the gear S

 

[Rogifan]

Without even using it I won't disagree. I never use the 'digital crown' on my Apple Watch. And while apparently much easier to quickly use, I'd wager most people will probably deferring to using the touch screen vs. the bezel for most of their interaction on the Gear S2 as well...our brains are just wired that way after using smartphones in his fashion for so long now.

I am impressed by what I've seen from it so far--kudos to Samsung for early impressions.

I'm a little confused as to how a rotating crown could be unintuitive. You put your finger on it and rotate it. Now maybe Samsung's rotary bezel will turn out to be a better idea but I'm sick and tired of all this unintuitive nonsense being thrown around with Watch. The Verge has been pushing this meme since last September. I've been using mine for over a month with no confusion at all. And I'm not some super tech geek.

 

[Technarchy]

I'm a little confused as to how a rotating crown could be unintuitive. You put your finger on it and rotate it. Now maybe Samsung's rotary bezel will turn out to be a better idea but I'm sick and tired of all this unintuitive nonsense being thrown around with Watch. The Verge has been pushing this meme since last September. I've been using mine for over a month with no confusion at all. And I'm not some super tech geek.

The Apple Watch experience is a little convoluted. Not impossible to navigate, just not all that intuitive.

Perhaps less of a emotional response is needed and consider maybe the charge of unintuitive is not baseless.

The Verge are Apple die hards, so if they are on board the notion isn't a complete fiction.

 

[Fernandez21]

I really like this watch, and opening up to all android is a big plus. They seem to have paired back the feature set even more though, there's no camera or ir blaster, plus I would much prefer to use either Google now or siri over s-voice, in fact anything over s-voice.

The design is great though, as is the water proofing. The rotation bezel and ui look great too. Depending on price I may need to give this a go, though I still think I may just end up using my Moto 360 and apple watch until next year at least.

 

[Sevanw]

I'm a little confused as to how a rotating crown could be unintuitive. You put your finger on it and rotate it. Now maybe Samsung's rotary bezel will turn out to be a better idea but I'm sick and tired of all this unintuitive nonsense being thrown around with Watch. The Verge has been pushing this meme since last September. I've been using mine for over a month with no confusion at all. And I'm not some super tech geek.

How often does The Verge say something negative about anything Apple? You know it's gotta be pretty bad for The Verge to call it out. There's no two ways about it, the Tizen UI and the rotating bezel kills it.

 

[JaySoul]

It looks really impressive, have to say. Well done, Samsung.

Between the S6 Edge and now the Gear S2, they are on a roll.

This guy sums it up perfectly! http://www.androidcentral.com/i-want-samsung-gear-s2-and-im-not-sure-how-i-feel-about

 

[kdarling]

I'm a little confused as to how a rotating crown could be unintuitive.

Because... unlike say, a cursor pad on an old Blackberry... it's not always active, and it's not always apparent when you can use it.

You and I might be willing to take the time to sit down, play with it, and figure it out, but some people will not.

When I gave my daughter-in-law an Apple Watch, it surprised me that it took a half hour to go through and show her how the UI worked. In the end, I even printed out a website cheatsheet for her, showing the various UI paths.

Click a button, then touch here, then scroll the crown, then touch again, etc. It's poor UX to require three different input methods to do something.

Heck, you know it's confusing when many Apple Store salespeople couldn't figure out how to do even simple things the first few days they had them on display. I saw it. That's quite unlike with the iPhone.

Oh, and throw in the secret and also non-intuitive force touch options that you have to find on your own.

I'll say one thing for Jobs, I really think that he would never have allowed this watch to go to market with so many extra inputs and non-apparent UI paths.

 

[tbayrgs]

I'm a little confused as to how a rotating crown could be unintuitive. You put your finger on it and rotate it. Now maybe Samsung's rotary bezel will turn out to be a better idea but I'm sick and tired of all this unintuitive nonsense being thrown around with Watch. The Verge has been pushing this meme since last September. I've been using mine for over a month with no confusion at all. And I'm not some super tech geek.

It's not unintuitive on how to use it (pretty clear it spins) but rather when to use it. The rotating crown's traditional function has been to either wind a watch or adjust the time on traditional timepieces. How it's used is inconsistent on the Appple Watch. On some areas of the UI, you rotate it to scroll while in another spot, it's used to zoom. As a button it's even less intuitive. I press it once to see my apps, again to return to the clock. If I've browsed my apps, press it returns me to the center of the apps where I have to press again to return to the clock. If I'm in an app, pressing it once returns me to the clock, not my apps. If I double press it, my most recent app opens. If I hold it, Siri launches. How on Earth is anyone expect to infer all of these functions just by looking at it?

Now if the rotating bezel in the Gear S2 also has an inconsistent multitude of functions, I'll levy the same criticism. That being said, even if that is the case, it seems to be much easier to use/manipulate than the crown.

 

[Sevanw]

So the breaking news is that Samsung is open to making the Gear S2 compatible with iOS. When a spokesperson was asked, the response was that Samsung "positively looking into opening the Gear S2 up to iOS." Who knows when it'll actually happen though.

Reported on Techradar

 

[epicrayban]

The more I read, see, and watch about this device, the more impressive it becomes.

 

[Technarchy]

So the breaking news is that Samsung is open to making the Gear S2 compatible with iOS. When a spokesperson was asked, the response was that Samsung "positively looking into opening the Gear S2 up to iOS." Who knows when it'll actually happen though.

Reported on Techradar

Makes sense. They would be crazy not to push into that market.

 

[vintimus]

Definitely looking impressive. If they can keep the app situation rolling, definitely a solid alternative to android wear.

 

[AFEPPL]

Looks way ahead of the AW...

 

[vikingjunior]

Rumor has it the rotating bezel is laggy to keep consistent with their phones.

 

[Robstevo]

Rumor has it the rotating bezel is laggy to keep consistent with their phones.

Funny considering the apple watch takes about 5 minutes to open an app

 

[BlueGoldAce]

Rumor has it the rotating bezel is laggy to keep consistent with their phones.

And its preproduction software; not that the Apple Watch is great in this area.

 

[Sevanw]

The one common theme you read as the hands on reviews come in, is that this is the first smartwatch that nonbelievers in smartwatches would give a try. I have yet to read a single hands on that says they are not impressed. And every comparison to the Apple Watch has given the nod to that rotating bezel over the digital crown. And this is coming from people that use the Apple Watch. I'm more than certain Apple will release a round Watch. A round watch face is just natural. It seems people just don't want the geeky calculator watch look. Apple only sold as many as it did because it's massive loyal customer base. I'd venture to say, if they had a round watch, it would have sold better. Just my opinion of course.

 

[Robstevo]

The one common theme you read as the hands on reviews come in, is that this is the first smartwatch that nonbelievers in smartwatches would give a try. I have yet to read a single hands on that says they are not impressed. And every comparison to the Apple Watch has given the nod to that rotating bezel over the digital crown. And this is coming from people that use the Apple Watch. I'm more than certain Apple will release a round Watch. A round watch face is just natural. It seems people just don't want the geeky calculator watch look. Apple only sold as many as it did because it's massive loyal customer base. I'd venture to say, if they had a round watch, it would have sold better. Just my opinion of course.

My only probably with this device is the software updates, If I'm ever going to buy a watch I want it for at least 2 years in terms of software updates. (Not just patches but actual feature updates)

Have Samsung shown that they do this to there touch Wizz watches? They struggle to do it to there flag ship phones. ( and I have the note 5!).

 

[mi7chy]

After closely looking at pictures and design of all the watches coming out the best looking are:

1. Gear S2
2. Moto
3. LG
4. Huawei
5. Asus
6. Apple

Since I'm only considering stand-alone capable watches with built in cellular it narrows it down to Gear S2 and LG so Gear S2 will be getting my money unless we get more contenders.

 

[Technarchy]

After closely looking at pictures and design of all the watches coming out the best looking are:

1. Gear S2
2. Moto G
3. LG
4. Huawei
5. Asus
6. Apple

Since I'm only considering stand-alone capable watches with built in cellular it narrows it down to Gear S2 and LG so Gear S2 will be getting my money unless we get more contenders.

Most of the smart watches look like complete ass, especially the Chinese ones which have all the panache of a Canal Street sweat shop facsimile.

If I were ranking them there would only be 3.

1: Apple Watch
2: Gear S2
3: Moto 360 (2015)

The rest I wouldn't bother with.

 

[AFEPPL]

After closely looking at pictures and design of all the watches coming out the best looking are:

1. Gear S2
2. Moto G
3. LG
4. Huawei
5. Asus
6. Apple

Since I'm only considering stand-alone capable watches with built in cellular it narrows it down to Gear S2 and LG so Gear S2 will be getting my money unless we get more contenders.

That order looks about right to me - the apple watch just looks like my sons vtech play watch..(with less features).

 

[The Game 161]

Question is can you go into apps like you can with the apple watch? If all it does is notifications then it wouldn't be a better option than apple watch to me

 

[BlueGoldAce]

Price and release date.

http://www.phonearena.com/news/Sams...ear-S2-Classic-price-and-release-date_id73478

 

[tbayrgs]

Price and release date.

http://www.phonearena.com/news/Sams...ear-S2-Classic-price-and-release-date_id73478

Ouch...not doing themselves any favors with that pricing. And I'm not saying it's not worth it, just giving a pretty big hurdle to attract customers away from other smart watches.